SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

November 3, 2016 by Gary Price

DPLA’s Archival Description Working Group Publishes White Paper, “Aggregating and Representing Collections in the Digital Public Library of America”

November 3, 2016 by Gary Price

From the Digital Public Library of America:

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs), and makes them freely available to the world. LAMs share much in common, but can differ widely in description practices. Archives, in particular, differ from the other two in the use of hierarchical description that situates materials within the context of other records or documents that share the same provenance.
To accomplish DPLA’s initial goal of creating an aggregation of metadata for cultural heritage materials, the technological infrastructure developed centered on the item-centric library model for description: one descriptive metadata record for each individual digital “object.” While this method works very well for items catalogued singly, like books, it doesn’t reflect the diversity of descriptive practice. Archives and special collections have increasingly focused on aggregate-level description in digital objects, which more closely mirrors their traditional descriptive practices. This kind of description typically creates a single descriptive record for a grouping of related or similar objects.
2016-11-03_11-13-37
In 2015, DPLA announced the formation of the Archival Description Working Group to find ways to accommodate this diversity in descriptive practice within our data.
Today that group is releasing its whitepaper Aggregating and Representing Collections in the Digital Public Library of America.
The working group’s goal was to make two types of recommendations:

  1. Recommendations for aggregate-level archival objects
  2. Recommendation for providing context through collection-level metadata for digital objects, whether they originate from archives or not.

The working group met virtually over the last year to do a significant degree of research in the professional literature, review of exemplary and peer projects, and development of recommendations and requirements. The report recommends the incorporation of aggregate level records into DPLA and recommendations about how such metadata could be created, gathered, and displayed.
The working group further recommends that collection information be made more accessible in DPLA records by adding it to the DPLA’s portal. The amount of collection metadata recommended for display remains relatively minimal– just title, description and a URL to a longer description, like a home page or a finding aid on the web – in order to be widely applicable.
DPLA would like to thank the working group members for their dedication and hard work:

  • Jodi Allison-Bunnel, OrbisCascade Alliance
  • Mark Custer, Yale University
  • Bradley Daigle, University of Virginia
  • Jackie Dean, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Max Eckard, University of Michigan
  • Ben Goldman, The Pennsylvania State University
  • Kris Keisling, University of Minnesota
  • Leigh Grinstead, LYRASIS
  • Adrian Turner, California Digital Library

In addition, the working group had an Advisory Board that helped the workgroup by reviewing drafts before public release and providing feedback. Advisory Board members include:

  • Shawn Averkamp, New York Public Library
  • Erin Hawkins, World Digital Library, Library of Congress
  • Sheila McAlister, Digital Library of Georgia
  • Sandra McIntyre, HathiTrust
  • Anne Van Camp, Smithsonian Institution

The recommendations found in “Aggregating and Representing Collections in the Digital Public Library of America need to be tested and revised before implementation. They were not intended to be put in place overnight, or even in fact to be implemented as is. They are recommendations on the general direction to take in regards to collection description in aggregated records. DPLA is looking forward to the future collaboration with our partners as we take on these important challenges.

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Data Files, Digital Collections, Interactive Tools, Journal Articles, Libraries, News, Public Libraries

SHARE:

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

Ithaka S+R Releases "A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey" Findings

From an Ithaka S+R Blog Post by the Report’s Author, Makala Skinner:  On Tuesday, January 31, we published the A*CENSUS II Archives Administrators Survey findings. The Archives Administrator Survey Report is ...

“Food is a Right: Libraries and Food Justice" (A New White Paper From the Urban Libraries Council)

From the Urban Libraries Council (ULC): The Urban Libraries Council (ULC) announces today the release of its latest white paper, “Food is a Right: Libraries and Food Justice,” which addresses ...

Standards: W3C Re-Launched as a Public-Interest Non-Profit Organization; eLife’s New Model: Open for Submissions; & More News Headlines

Annual Report 2022: Highlights from the Data Curation Network arXiv Announces New Policy on ChatGPT and Similar Tools (via arXiv Blog) COPE in 2023 (via Committee on Publication Ethics) eLife’s ...

Journal Article: "A Free Toolkit to Foster Open Access Agreements"

The article linked to below was today published by Insights. Title A Free Toolkit to Foster Open Access Agreements Authors Alicia Wise Information Power Lorraine Estelle Information Power Source Insights 36 ...

Six Libraries Partner With GPO To Preserve Government Information

From the Government Publishing Office (GPO): Libraries at the University of Montana, the University of Memphis, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville have signed Memorandum of Agreements with the U.S. ...

Michigan: Grand Rapids Public Library Finds Rare Set of 'Magic Lantern' Slides Showing Early Tuskegee Institute

From Fox 17 (Grand Rapids): The folks over at the Grand Rapids Public Library made a fascinating discovery while digging through their massive archives back in March 2021, and are ...

Journal Article: "Knowledge Work in Platform Fact-Checking Partnerships"

The article linked below was recently published by the International Journal of Communication. Title Knowledge Work in Platform Fact-Checking Partnerships Authors Valérie Bélair-Gagnon University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, USA Rebekah Larsen ...

State Library Looks to Install Book Vending Machines Around North Dakota; A Guide to Communicating With Others: Messaging...

A Guide to Communicating With Others: Messaging Apps (via Privacy International) De Gruyter Acquires Mercury Learning and Information Report by the French Committee for Open Science Working Group on Electronic ...

Just Released: Calculators Now Emulated at The Internet Archive (The Calculator Drawer)

From an Internet Archive Blog Post by Jason Scott: It’s time to add another family of emulated older technology to the Internet Archive. The vast majority of platforms within what ...

Journal Article: "Crossref as a Bibliographic Discovery Tool in the Arts and Humanities"

The article linked below was recently published by Quantitative Science Studies. Title Crossref as a Bibliographic Discovery Tool in the Arts and Humanities Authors Ángel Borrego Universitat de Barcelona, Melcior ...

Montana: ImagineIF Trustees Hold Special Meeting on Library Security Concerns; Pennsylvania: Philly’s Free Library is Making Space for...

Colorado: Suspensions Increase at Pikes Peak Library District Under New Security Protocols (via The Gazette) Montana: ImagineIF Trustees Hold Special Meeting on Library Security Concerns (via Daily Inter Mountain) North ...

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.